Data storage system, method and data storage and backkup system

ABSTRACT

A data storage system, method and a data storage and backup system are provided. The data storage method comprises defining a local storage of the data processing system as a journal vault; storing data in the journal vault by journaling; sending the data from the journal vault to a transmitter; and transmitting the data from the transmitter to a secondary storage. The present invention enhances a write function of a low performance storage device by journaling. In a case where the present invention is applied to a backup system, the performance of the whole backup system can be improved significantly, and the backup system can be extended to a remote site easily. When a storage of a production system fails, the storage system of the present invention can be switched to “production mode” and service resumes to be provided with the shortest downtime.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The application claims the priority benefits of Chinese PatentApplication No. 200810186708.5 filed on Dec. 12, 2008, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a data storage system, andmore particularly, relates to a write enhanced data storage system, adata storage method, and a data storage and backup system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

In general, data backup is performed by use of various storage mediums,such as magnetic tape, magnetic disk or the like. For example, in abackup by means of magnetic disks, generally a magnetic disk used forthe backup is disposed in separate system, and data is communicatedthrough networks such as IP, iSCSI, optical fiber and so on. For ageneral use, the performance of the magnetic disk used for the backup isgenerally lower than the performance of the magnetic disk in a hostcomputer. For example, a production system might adopt a SAS magneticdisk, and in contrast a backup system might adopt a SATA magnetic disk.Therefore, if a mirrored backup is used, due to the low performance ofthe magnetic disk for the backup, the efficiency of the mirror will below, and correspondingly the resource of the production system will beaffected. However, in a production circumstance, system resource is veryimportant for a production sever. Thus it should be avoided that thesystem resource is occupied by a process which does not belong to theproduction service itself. On the other hand, if a storage device of abackup system is of the same speed and the same level as that of aproduction system, for example both are SAS magnetic disks, although thespeed is increased, the cost of the backup system becomes expensive.Further more, if a backup in a remote copying manner is adopted, thebackup window will be relatively long, resulting in that the index forindicating the amount of data loss becomes large, and data protection isnot so perfect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the above mentioned problems, the present inventionaims to provide an enhanced low performance storage system.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided adata storage method for a data processing system, comprising: defining alocal storage of the data processing system as a journal vault; storingdata in the journal vault by journaling; sending the data from thejournal vault to a transmitter; and transmitting the data from thetransmitter to a secondary storage.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda data storage system for a data processing system, comprising: ajournal vault, which is a local storage of the data processing system,and stores data by journaling; a transmitter for receiving the data fromthe journal vault; and a secondary storage for receiving and storing thedata transmitted from the transmitter.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda data storage system, comprising: a production system including a firststorage; a backup system including a secondary storage, a mirrorrelationship between the first storage and the secondary storage beingestablished for a backup, the backup system further comprising: ajournal vault, which is a local storage of the data processing system,and stores data by journaling at the time when the data is written intothe first storage; and a transmitter for receiving the data from thejournal vault; and wherein the secondary storage receives and stores thedata transmitted from the transmitter as the backup of the firststorage.

By the journaling mechanism and the added local storage, the presentinvention enhances the write function of a low performance storagedevice.

Further, in a case where the present invention is applied to a backupsystem, since the writing performance of the storage system is enhancedand writing operations occupies most work time of the backup system, theperformance of the whole backup system can be improved significantly.Also, the backup system can be extended to a remote site by simpledeployment and setup. Also, in case a storage of a production systemfails, the storage system of the present invention can be switched to“production mode” and service resumes to be provided with the shortestdowntime.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be better understood by those skilled in the art from thedetailed description of the embodiments of the invention in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, the sameor similar reference number indicates the same or similar component,wherein

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data storage system according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a data storage system according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a data storage system issevered as a backup system according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a data storage system issevered as a concentrative backup system for a plurality of productionsystems according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a data storage method according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The specific embodiments of the present invention will be describedbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings. If considering thedetailed description of some prior art might blur the main points of thepresent invention, the detailed description thereof is not providedherewith. And the invention comprises, but is not limited to, theinstances explained in all the examples below.

In the following description, the terminology of “low performance”regarding storage medium is relative to another terminology “highperformance”. The relationship between the terms of “low” and “high”should be comprehended in relative meaning with respect to each other,instead of absolute meaning. In general, performance of a storage deviceused for a backup system is lower than that of a production system. Forexample, a production system uses a SAS hard disk and a backup systemuses a SATA hard disk. It is also possible that a backup system uses adevice the performance of which is comparable to or higher than that ofa production system. However, generally speaking, performance of astorage device of a backup system is lower than that of a productionsystem. Likewise, the terms of “low” and “high” usually mean to berelative when applied to describe the performance, because it isdifficult to give an absolute definition for the terms of “low” and“high” due to the characteristic that performance of various storagemediums keep improved increasingly. However, it does not means a lot forthe present invention, because such performance improvement is for allvarious storage mediums, and a storage medium with high performance willcontinue to maintain its advantage with respect to a storage medium withlow performance.

Also, a first storage and a secondary storage are relative conceptions.As well known in the art, a first storage usually refers to a storagesystem local in a data processing system, and a secondary storageusually refers to a remote storage system, but it can also be a storagesystem local in a data processing system. Further, a first storageusually adopts a high performance storage medium, and serves as thestorage of a production system. In contrast, a secondary storage usuallyadopts a relatively low performance storage medium, and serves as thestorage of a backup system. Moreover, when a first storage fails, datacan be directly written into and read out from a secondary storage, andin this regard the secondary storage becomes a first storage.

Furthermore, in present specification, sometimes, we use the expressionthat “applying” a journal to a secondary storage, and “applying” hereincludes transmitting a journal to a secondary storage, and writing, forexample according to a recorded position L and content C, the content Cinto the position L.

Firstly, a data storage system according to one embodiment of presentinvention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data storage system 100 according toone embodiment of the present invention. The data storage system 100comprises: a journal vault 120, which is a local storage of the dataprocessing system 110, and stores data by journaling; a transmitter 130for receiving a journal from the journal vault 120; and a secondarystorage 140 for receiving and storing the data transmitted form thetransmitter 130.

The data processing system 110 here can be implemented by a desktopcomputer, a portable computer, a workstation or the like. In the senseof network, it can be a client, a server, or both of them at the sametime.

The journal vault 120 is a local storage of the data processing system110. The local storage includes all storage devices that can be accesseddirectly by an operation system of the data processing system, such as aUSB disk, floppy disk, solid state magnetic disk, complex flash disk,locally connected hard disk, external hard disk, remote magnetic disc,memory space or the like. Moreover, the local storage used as thejournal vault can be a storage newly added into the data processingsystem, or can be the existing or virtual storage in the data processingsystem. Preferably, a newly added local storage is used as the journalvault.

The data processing system 110 is connected with the journal vault 120(as indicated by arrow 111). As to the connection manner, it can be themanner of a directly connected USB flash driver, local hard disk driver,RAM Disk (memory simulating magnetic disk) or the like, or it also canbe the manner of connecting through fiber channel, SATA, SAS, SCSI,iSCSI, IP and so on, as long as the operation system of the dataprocessing system can directly access the journal vault in a manner oflocal storage. The data of the data processing system is written intothe journal vault 120 by a drive in the manner of journaling. Since thejournal vault 120 uses a local storage as a storage device, the writingspeed can be ensured. Also, since it is written directly by journaling,the writing operation does not spend the disk tracking time. Also, inthe journaling manner, the volume of data is small and the transmissionthereof is faster than that of the complete data, thus the writingoperation performance of the data processing system 110 is enhanced.

The journal referred herein includes all journal manners that can recordthe writing of disk data, for example, including but not limited to,encryption/decryption, non-deduplicate/deduplicate, simple directmanner/indirect manner, and records at least the position and content ina manner of “sequential/non sequential”. The content of a journalrecords at least the position where the data is written and the contentthereof, and other contents to be recorded include but are not limitedto date, time and the contents before changed.

The transmitter 130 is an intermediate component between the journalvault 120 and the secondary storage 140. After the journal is writteninto the journal vault 120, the transmitter 130 will read out thejournal according to a predefined time policy (as indicated by arrow121). The transmitter 130 can be implemented by software, hardware,firmware or the combination thereof, as long as it can implement thefunctions of receiving a journal, transmitting a journal, and applying ajournal to the secondary storage. The transmitter 130 can be a componentlocated inside the data processing system 110, a component located inanother data processing system, or an independent hardware. Whenimplemented in hardware, the transmitter 130 can be connected with thejournal vault 130 through a fiber channel, SATA, SAS, iSCSI, IP or thelike. Alternatively, the transmitter can be implemented in software, andthen the transmitter 130 can be a program process which can be run inthe data processing system 110 or other systems, only on condition thatit can receive, transmit and apply the journal to the secondary storage.In addition, in the operating of the journal by the transmitter 130, thetransmitter 130 can perform the functions of data compression, dataencryption and deleting of duplicate data, that is, only retaining thejournal that is sufficient to generate the final state of current data.

The transmitter 130 can apply the journal to the secondary storage 140(as indicated by arrow 131) according to a predefined time policy, forexample, continuously or periodically, so as to form the final storageof the data.

In addition, since the capacity of a journal vault is limited, thetransmitter 130 can delete the journal in the journal vault that hasbeen applied to the low performance secondary storage 140 periodicallyor aperiodically according to a predefined policy.

The secondary storage 140 is generally a low performance storage mediumwith respect to the first storage of the data processing system 110. Thesecondary storage 140 can be, for example but not limited thereto, aSATA magnetic disk, magnetic tape, magnetic disc and so on.Alternatively, it may also be a storage medium the performance of whichis comparable to or in a special situation higher than that of the firststorage. The secondary storage 140 can be local in the data processingsystem 110, but also can be at a remote location. Also, the secondarystorage 140 can also support a snapshot function by using thecharacteristic of the storage itself, thereby obtaining multipleversions of a data image. Thereafter, the data processing system, whenrequires data, will read the data from the secondary storage 140. Ingeneral, since the performance of the secondary storage 140 isrelatively low, the storage system 100 forms a low performance storagesystem as a whole. However, the function of writing operation to thestorage system 100 by the data processing system 110 is enhanced byjournaling.

FIG. 2 shows a data storage system 100′ according to another embodimentof the present invention. The embodiment differs from that shown in FIG.1 in that it further includes an archive journal vault 150. According tothis embodiment, the transmitter 130 will send (as indicated by arrow151) the received journal to the archive journal vault 150 at the sametime as sending it to the secondary storage 140. In addition to servingas a long term archive of the journal, the archive journal vault 150 canalso implement a continuous data protection function, enabling the findof data status at any time point.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a data storage system issevered as a backup system according to one embodiment of the presentinvention, which illustrates one application of the present invention toa backup system. The data processing system 110 is connected with thefirst storage 219 directly or through optical fiber/IP/iSCSI (asindicated by line 200), and is also connected with a storage system 100(as indicated by arrow 111). The structure of the storage system 100 isas shown in FIG. 1, and the duplicate description thereof is omittedhere. A mirror relationship 210 is established between the localmagnetic disk 201 and the storage system 100, and any writing of datainto the first storage 200 of the data processing system 110 will causethe writing into the storage system 100 by journaling at the same time.As shown in FIG. 1, incoming data will be journaled into the journalvault 130, and will be stored finally into the secondary storage 140 ofthe storage system 100. Since the combination mode of both a storage ofjournal vault 120 and the secondary storage 140 is applied, theperformance of writing the backup mirror data into storage system 100 isrelatively faster as compared with the conventional backup manner inwhich the magnetic disk data should be read out first and then writteninto the backup system.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a data storage system isserved as a concentrative backup system for a plurality of productionsystems according to one embodiment of the present invention, whichillustrates an extension of applying the storage system of the presentinvention shown in FIG. 2 to backup system. A plurality of dataprocessing systems 110 are connected and communicate with each otherthrough a network 300. Each of the data processing systems 110 can beconnected with the storage system 100 in the manner shown in FIG. 3 (asindicated by arrow 111), and data are all mirrored into the storagesystem 100, forming a concentrative backup application with the writingoperation enhanced. In this embodiment, a plurality of journal vaultsexist in the storage system 100, and the plurality of journal vaults arecorresponding mirrored local storages of the plurality of dataprocessing systems respectively.

Due to the enhanced write operation function, a production system inwhich the manner of a journal vault is applied contributes to theimprovement of performance in the backup application, which becomes a“backup mode” of the present system. When the storage of the productionsystem fails and it needs to take the backup storage into use, thefunctions of journal vault 120, transmitter 130 and so on in the presentsystem can be stopped and the production system can choose to read datafrom and write data into the second storage directly. In this work mode,the present system is referred as in a “production mode”. A “productionmode” means stop “enhancing write function” and becomes back to the modeof normal low performance storage.

The application of the present invention is platform-independent, andany data processing system 110 can adopt the present invention, as longas it can establish a connection with storage system 100 by anyapproach.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a data storage method according to oneembodiment of the present invention. A data storing method for a dataprocessing system comprises: step 501 of defining a local storage of thedata processing system which can be new added, existing or virtual, as ajournal vault; step 502 of storing data in the journal vault byjournaling; step 503 of transmitting the data from the journal vault tothe transmitter; and step 504 of transmitting the data from thetransmitter to the secondary storage.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the localstorage is a storage device that can be accessed directly by anoperation system of the data processing system, and comprises at leastone of USB disk, floppy disk, solid magnetic disk, complex flash disk,locally connected hard disk, external hard disk, remote magnetic discand memory space.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, wherein thedata processing system is connected with the journal vault through afiber channel, SATA, SAS, SCSI, iSCSI or IP.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the journalrecords writing of disk data to the data processing system, wherein aposition where the data is written and content thereof are recordedsequentially.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, thetransmitter is located in the data processing system or is located inanother data processing system, and is for receiving, transmitting andapplying the journal to the secondary storage.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, thetransmitter applies, continuously or periodically, the journal from thejournal vault to the secondary storage.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, in theoperating of the transmitter, one or more operations of datacompression, data encryption and deleting of duplicate data areperformed.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, thetransmitter also sends the received journal to an archive journal vault,and the archive journal vault stores the journal for a long term, andperforms continuous data protection.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, thetransmitter periodically deletes the journal in the journal vault thathas been applied to the secondary storage.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the secondarystorage supports a snapshot function.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the journalvault records writing of disk data for a plurality of data processingsystems so that data of a plurality of a first storage isconcentratively backuped in the secondary storage.

The present invention enhances the writing performance of a lowperformance data storage system by adding the structure of the journalvault and the transmitter.

Further, in a case where the present invention is applied to a backupsystem, since the writing performance of the backup system is enhancedand writing operations occupies most work time of the backup system, theperformance of the whole backup system can be improved significantly.Also, the backup system can be extended to a remote site by simpledeployments and setups.

The present invention can provide a better protection for data byproviding a secondary mirror of a storage of a production system in themanner of journaling. The advantages of the present inventioncomprises: 1. providing a better data protection: the data loss equalsto 0 (RP0=0); 2. saving cost: a device for a secondary storage onlyneeds to satisfy a relatively low performance requirement; 3. highusability: once the production system storage fails, the storage systemof the present invention can be switched to “production mode” andservice resumes to be provided with the shortest downtime.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled inthe art should understand that various changes and modifications can bemade to the embodiments without departing the principles and spirits ofthe present invention and they still fall into the scope of claims andthe equivalent thereof.

1. A data storage method for a data processing system, comprising:defining a local storage of the data processing system as a journalvault; storing data in the journal vault by journaling; sending the datafrom the journal vault to a transmitter; and transmitting the data fromthe transmitter to a secondary storage.
 2. The method according to claim1, wherein the local storage is a storage device that can be accesseddirectly by an operation system of the data processing system, andcomprises at least one of USB disk, floppy disk, solid magnetic disk,complex flash disk, locally connected hard disk, external hard disk,remote magnetic disc and memory space.
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein the data processing system is connected with the journalvault through a fiber channel, SATA, SAS, SCSI, iSCSI or IP.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the journal records writing of diskdata to the data processing system, wherein a position where the data iswritten and content thereof are recorded sequentially.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is located in the dataprocessing system or is located in another data processing system, andis for receiving, transmitting and applying the journal to the secondarystorage.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitterapplies, continuously or periodically, the journal from the journalvault to the secondary storage.
 7. The method according to claim 1,wherein during the operating of the transmitter, one or more operationsof data compression, data encryption and deleting of duplicate data areperformed.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitteralso sends the received journal to an archive journal vault, and thearchive journal vault stores the journal for a long term, and performscontinuous data protection.
 9. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe transmitter periodically deletes the journal in the journal vaultthat has been applied to the secondary storage.
 10. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the secondary storage supports a snapshot function.11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method supports morethan one data processing systems simultaneously.
 12. A data storagesystem for a data processing system, comprising: a journal vault, whichis a local storage of the data processing system, and stores data byjournaling; a transmitter for receiving the data from the journal vault;and a secondary storage for receiving and storing the data transmittedfrom the transmitter.
 13. The data storage system according to claim 12,wherein the local storage is a storage device that can be accesseddirectly by an operation system of the data processing system, andcomprises at least one of USB disk, floppy disk, solid magnetic disk,complex flash disk, locally connected hard disk, external hard disk,remote magnetic disc and memory space.
 14. The data storage systemaccording to claim 12, wherein the data processing system is connectedwith the journal vault through a fiber channel, SATA, SAS, SCSI, iSCSIor IP.
 15. The data storage system according to claim 12, wherein thejournal records writing of disk data to the data processing system,wherein a position where the data is written and content thereof arerecorded sequentially.
 16. The data storage system according to claim12, wherein the transmitter is located in the data processing system oris located in another data processing system, and is for receiving,transmitting and applying the journal to the secondary storage.
 17. Thedata storage system according to claim 12, wherein the transmitterapplies, continuously or periodically, the journal from the journalvault to the secondary storage.
 18. The data storage system according toclaim 12, wherein in the transmitter, one or more operations of datacompression, data encryption and deleting of duplicate data areperformed.
 19. The data storage system according to claim 12, furthercomprising an archive journal vault, and the transmitter also sends thereceived journal to the archive journal vault, and the archive journalvault stores the journal for a long term, and performs continuous dataprotection.
 20. The data storage system according to claim 12, whereinthe transmitter periodically deletes the journal in the journal vaultthat has been applied to the secondary storage.
 21. The data storagesystem according to claim 12, the secondary storage supports a snapshotfunction.
 22. The data storage system according to claim 12, the datastorage system supports more than one data processing systemssimultaneously.
 23. A data storage system, comprising: a productionsystem including a first storage; a backup system including a secondarystorage, a mirror relationship between the first storage and thesecondary storage being established for a backup, the backup systemfurther comprising: a journal vault, which is a local storage of thedata processing system, and stores data by journaling at the time whenthe data is written into the first storage; and a transmitter forreceiving the data from the journal vault; and wherein the secondarystorage receives and stores the data transmitted from the transmitter asthe backup of the first storage.
 24. The data storage system accordingto claim 23, wherein the journal vault records writing of data torespective first storages of a plurality of data processing systems sothat the data of the respective first storages is concentrativelybackuped in the secondary storage.
 25. The data storage system accordingto claim 23, when the first storage fails, the backup system is switchedto the production system.
 26. The data storage system according to claim24, when the first storage fails, the backup system is switched to theproduction system.